From the book
Stobaeus, Volume I
John Stobaeus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Evil
κακόν
kakonKakon can name an evil, a bad condition, or something harmful.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordKakon can name an evil, a bad condition, or something harmful.
- In StobaeusCleanthes speaks of what bad people do through folly while also praising the common reason that fits good and bad into one order.
- In this edition“Evil” is not imposed where “bad,” “harmful,” or a context-specific contrast is more exact.
- A place to beginHuman folly is set alongside the universal ordering reason.
- English renderings
- evil; badness; bad things
Meaning
Kakon can name an evil, a bad condition, or something harmful. Kakos can characterize a person or an action; its force must be determined locally.
Use in the book
Cleanthes speaks of what bad people do through folly while also praising the common reason that fits good and bad into one order. The hymn preserves both claims. Iamblichus describes divine correction as lessening, relieving, or removing evils without abolishing fate. The Hermetic account of the soul’s love of the good gives evil another role, as what the newly oriented soul forgets and leaves behind.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
“Evil” is not imposed where “bad,” “harmful,” or a context-specific contrast is more exact. The edition does not supply a reconciliation missing from the quoted argument.
Source note
Wachsmuth, volume I, printed pp. 25–26, 43, 273.
From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Evil
evil; evil things; moral disorder; harmful deprivation
Evil can name wrongdoing, the corruption of a good power, or a harm suffered through the loss of something valuable.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordEvil can name wrongdoing, the corruption of a good power, or a harm suffered through the loss of something valuable.
- In TraherneA remarkable argument makes an excessive wish to please the fountain of evil: goodness becomes compliance when the people one hopes to gratify prize the wrong things.
- In this editionWhen “evil” qualifies an object of love, it may describe a sinful person.
- A place to beginThe desire to delight others becomes the source of conformity to mistaken values.
Meaning
Evil can name wrongdoing, the corruption of a good power, or a harm suffered through the loss of something valuable. Traherne frequently explains it through damaged relationships and misdirected love.
Use in the book
A remarkable argument makes an excessive wish to please the fountain of evil: goodness becomes compliance when the people one hopes to gratify prize the wrong things. Elsewhere the loss of another soul’s love is itself an evil beyond imagining, because it frustrates an end for which creation exists. Yet grace enables love to address persons who are undeserving or presently evil. Loving a sinner is not the same act as approving the wrong; it manifests a generosity no longer dependent on finding an already attractive object.
Places to read
- IV.44The desire to delight others becomes the source of conformity to mistaken values.
- IV.86Withheld love is a devastating loss of a good for which the world was made.
- IV.87Grace enables a soul to love sinners and those who deserve nothing from it.
- IV.24Social miseries are traced to vices rather than to a loss of created beauty.
In this edition
When “evil” qualifies an object of love, it may describe a sinful person. Do not turn the exhortation to love that person into an endorsement of harmful conduct.